7.15.21
C. Derick Miller
Head Writer
Your Stories On Video
Life Was Exercise?
I recently had a good look into the mirror and realized I’m not going to be around forever. Yes, I’m 47, and I just recently had this revelation. I thought I was immortal until that very moment. Don’t judge.
The truth of the matter is I have a wife who is a lot younger than me. Seventeen years, to be exact, and the numbers don’t lie. Not considering any type of horrible accident or medical anomaly, she will be sticking around on this rock by herself (or with the next lucky guy) for quite a while after I’ve danced into the great unknown mystery. Since I like this woman quite a bit, I figured it was time to get back in shape. I want to be around for as long as possible.
So, I bought a bicycle. Honestly, she bought me the bicycle. No, it wasn’t because SHE insisted I get in shape. I asked for it, and she was wonderful enough to oblige. I promised to pay her back.
First thing’s first: When did bicycles become so expensive? A bottom of the line model can cost you more than a typical car payment in the year 2021! Second: why has each corner of society become so hell-bent on spending every available moment sweating in a gym or jogging down the sidewalk?
As I perform my Your Stories On Video interviews, I’ve yet to have a single person bring up what they did in their younger days for exercise. Not one. Maybe it was because, exercise is such a downer, they wouldn’t want to relive the memories of barreling down the street at top speed while gasping for breath in the summer heat or chill of Winter. Then again…
Was “life” itself considered to be exercise in days gone by?
I’ve spoken with several clients who speak of working on the farm early in the morning before school or in the afternoons…but they never speak of these times as hardships or troubled. When most people talk about exercise or fitness, they do so as though it’s a burden. Trust me, I was in the Army. We knew all about working out! It was true madness in every definition of the word. Farm work, though. Wouldn’t that be an even bigger burden that running alongside a screaming Drill Sergeant?
Not according to my clients from previous generations.
No matter how many times I hear them speak of bleeding hands from pushing a plow, milking cows, or gathering eggs, they speak of these days as joyous. Fruitful, even. Perhaps it was. Working alongside your family for mutual benefit always feels right, doesn’t it? Nowadays, we buy everything from a grocery store and never stop to wonder where it came from or who was responsible for planting it, butchering it, or putting it together. Fifty years ago? Those generations worked their fingers to the bone just to have food in their bellies for the night and crops in the field to secure sustenance in the coming times. Everything came to be by their own hands, and they took pride in it. I’m certain, without the comforts of many modern technologies, that the work was much harder back then than what it would be today yet…not even one of them seemed to mind it much.
What memories of your life do you have that seemed tedious during childhood but can be looked back fondly on today? Did you grow up on a farm or ranch? Were you in the military or did you fight for your country during times of war? Did you complain endlessly about how hard it was to get up that hill next to your home on your overpriced bicycle? Here at Your Stories On Video, we want to know! So will the generations of your family who are yet to be born. Tell us your story…